Vincenzo Foppa of Brescia, founder of the Lombard school, his life ...

Chap. VIII. ROSSI CHAPEL, S. PIETRO IN GESSATE 199
In strong contrast to the silent anguish of this group of mourners is the
vehement agitation of the other Mary in the background, who flings up
her arms and cries aloud in her passionate grief. For the representation of
this figure the painter has made use of that time-honoured motive which from
all antiquity has been used to indicate despair, a motive the significance of
which was early recognized and constantly employed to express "the storm
of human emotion " by painters, sculptors, and miniaturists in medieval times,
as well as by the painters and engravers of the early and later Renaissance.'
A composition so instinct with all the qualities of Foppa's art fully corroborates
Albuzzio's attribution, and to return once more to the question of the
provenance, there can be no doubt, from all
this picture the altarpiece of the Rossi Chapel in S.
that has been said, that we have in
Pietro in Gessate painted
by Foppa. The obvious conclusion then is, that as there was a picture by this
master hanging in the chapel, it must have been the original altarpiece
and was consequently ordered from the painter by one of the family. We
know that a painting of this subject was seen there by Torre, who assigns it to
Bramante, but it receives no mention so far as we know in earlier times.
It is
doubtful whether Foppa was at Milan when the "restoration " of the
chapel was undertaken in 1480, but we know that he was working there
subsequently, and it is extremely probable that Agostino Rossi, like Ambrogio
Griffi, may have desired to secure his services. The latter, as already stated,^
began to treat with Foppa in 1487, but the negotiations were prolonged for
years, and the paintings in the Grifii Chapel were not finally carried out until
1493, and were then executed by other masters ;
and the altarpiece, it would
appear, was painted by order of Griffi's executors.
May we not assume that something of a like nature occurred in the
case of the Rossi Chapel? Between the years 1450 and i486 much had been
done towards beautifying the Church of S. Pietro in Gessate. A new choir
had been erected by the Portinari family,' and numerous chapels had been
endowed and decorated by various munificent donors. Agostino Rossi of
Parma was not behindhand in this matter, as we know from Puccinelli,' and
no doubt, like the Florentine Portinari, he sought to ingratiate himself yet
further with the Milanese and their rulers by adding to the embellishment of
1 It is not without interest also to recall the impressive fresco of this subject by some
good painter of the Giottesque period in the Church of S. Francesco at Brescia, a composition
with which Foppa must have been intimately acquainted. Here the Madonna
kisses the dead Christ, who lies in the tomb, and a Mary in the background raises both
hands with a gesture of profound grief. Foppa's treatment of the Pieta may also be
compared with that of his master Jacopo Bellini in the Paris sketch-book (Giraudon,
No. 737).
" Chaps, viand vii, pp. 153, 165.
'
See chap, iii, p. 57, note i.
''
See pp. 122, 325.